If after you check Brad’s suggestion of checking if MIDI reaches the plugin, you find it is reaching the plugin, then because you’re seeing this with different plugins, you should then look at your audio path, from the output of the plugin all the way to your speakers.
I used to suffer from a similar problem when I used a Muse Receptor to host plugins, going into a Behringer ADA8000 8-channel A/D+D/A converter. The cause was that some versions of the ADA8000 had a built-in noise gate that disabled its analog output until it had received a non-zero digital signal, presumably because they realised their audio outputs were noisy even with a zero digital input (!!). This wasn’t a listed feature, and earlier versions of t he ADA8000 didn’t have it. Unfortunately the switching took a few hundred milliseconds, so I would always lose the start of the sound. My solution was to run a white noise generator plugin continuously, running so quietly that you’d never hear it, but it would be enough to keep the gate open. Horrible, I know, but it worked.
I don’t know if this could be at all related to your problem, but it’s possible - do you have any noise gates on your audio path? Including possible noise gates in any of your audio hardware. What audio interface are you using?
I also still don’t understand what you mean by this:
By audio jumping, do you mean the volume level jumps? Or do you get audio glitches/distortion? Or your audio player jumps position?
Hi @Neil_Durant thanks also for your analysis. No gate effects or similar, main audio goes straight to the audio output. Audio interface is the Steinberg UR22 (USB).
Audio jumps… it means that when I press the keys I don’t get the sound immediately (as normal) but it sounds delayed, after a few ms. It means no sound … then sound…
Sounds like a plugin problem to me. There’s nothing in Cantabile’s audio or MIDI processing pipeline where things are delayed, or wait on other things to complete - unless the entire audio thread is stalled by Windows for some reason but that’s not what this sounds like.
Just thinking about this a little more… could this be that you’re simply playing before Cantabile has finished loading the song? Does it happen if you load the song and wait until the UI becomes fully responsive again before playing?
Cantabile 2 probably gives better feedback here that it’s still loading with it’s blacked out screen.
Hi Brad, I’m talking about properly loaded session. It does not matter how long you wait after loading a session. If you play after 5 minutes, first time you press the key the issue can happen… sometime it does not happen. Also, it does not matter which plugin, so far I count 4-5 plugins generating this issue.
I’ve never seen this. The closest I get is an only-just-noticable extra latency with the first notes with sample-heavy plugins like Ivory II. But I’m using an SSD - it might be a lot worse on a mechanical hard disk. But I never see it on fully synthesized plugins, as Mistheria has reported.
That sounds like a possibility…although why would Cantabile 2 not suffer from it (assuming it’s running on the same machine / OS / configuration). Worth checking the section on USB Suspend in Brad’s Glitch Free book, either way. And to be honest, everything else in the book!
I’m using the Steinberg UR22 ASIO driver set to approx. 5-6 ms. latency.
On laptop the Power setting is set to “High Performance” with USB sleeping disabled.
Yes I’ve read the book and set laptop accordingly time ago, although I set my computers for studio and audio performances since 20 years …
As you know, sometime it’s enough a simple background app or driver that generates the problem… I’ll finish to set my second laptop to be able loading the same setlist and perform on it to see if the issue happens on both laptop or only on one.
1st laptop in use (which I’d like to bring on stage) is a basic Intel i3 Acer Aspire E521, 4 GB RAM, standard disk.
2nd laptop is a ultra-powerful HP ZBook i7 QuadCore, 16 GB RAM, hybrid HD, etc.
I’ll keep you posted. Sure, I’ve to get it solved somehow before to jump on stage… just to make it clear, it does not happen always. These are that kind of problems that make me crazy… sometime I can play hour without any problem, then it happens, or maybe in another rehearsing session it happens once and then nevermore…
Hi @brad … so started the MIDI Monitor on a session which usually shows the problem. The MIDI monitor showed only notes (Note on, Note off) but the very first note I played had that “rumbling” problem, not ready at the first play. However, this same plugin showed the problem also on some notes later… audio shortly interrupts, on different notes…
So, do you think it’s a plugin issue? Which kind of issue?
The problem, as said, is that in another session, I got the problem with a different plugin, an Hammond sound (VB-3): I was playing, normally, then I moved the modulation bar to change the leslie speed, and the audio got interrupted for a ms.
What values are you seeing for “Load” in the monitor pane? And what buffer size are you using?
You mention using an i3 with 4Gb of RAM and a conventional mechanical hard drive - this sounds a bit underpowered to me. I wonder if it’s just struggling to fill the audio buffers quickly enough?
Hi @Neil_Durant … I think that a nowadays Intel i3 1.7 GHz can run a SINGLE virtual analog instrument without problems. I was running tons of plugins without problems back in 2007…
In my opinion it’s not a underpowered laptop. Hard drive is neither involved in the issue, sometime I open a session with only a plugin, let’s say a virtual Hammond… I get the problem. No samples to load.
Also, to give a better picture, sometime I load heavy sessions which include samples (e.g. Symphonic Orchestra, Choir, etc.) and I can play without any issues…
Moreover, the same laptop run same kind of sessions on Cantabile 2. This issue never happened.
I can’t remember if I already suggested this… have you tried running with multi-core processor support disabled? (Options -> Audio Engine -> Audio Threads -> 1 (Disabled)).
